3 days ago
Meet the Irish startup that tokenised a house — and now wants to transform global investing
Ctrl Alt, an Irish co-founded fintech business, is seeking to become the go-to option for institutional investors seeking to invest in alternative assets.
Founded by Jordan McMullen and Matt Ong in 2022, the company has offices in Dundalk, Belfast, Dubai and London, with its headquarters in the latter. To date, the business has raised €4 million in funding.
The company has developed a platform for investments in the likes of real estate or private credit.
'Essentially we make it easier and cheaper for people to invest in alternative assets,' Jack Denton, chief of staff at Ctrl Alt, told the Business Post. We cover anything that needs investment but that ordinary people normally can't invest in.'
'This could be anything from art to a wind farm. Whatever it may be, we help people invest in those projects.'
The business uses a tokenisation platform designed to allow investors to make small partial investments in assets.
'In the same way that a share represents ownership of something, a token is like that but can be transferred and shared on the blockchain. In the UAE, for example, the title deed on a house can be sent as a token on the blockchain,' Denton said.
'On the blockchain we can always track the token down and work out where it is. That makes it more secure.'
McMullen and Ong developed the idea from their time working together in Morgan Stanley, where investments in the luxury market boomed during the pandemic.
'There was a big market for luxury watches during Covid. The value of Rolexes was rising but, to get involved in that market, people had to buy a Rolex. What they wanted to do was offer the opportunity to everyone,' Denton said.
'Tokenisation allowed them to split out an asset into tokens, creating a different way to invest in it. We were the first in the UK to tokenise a house, where people could buy a piece of the property for as little as £10 (€12).'
The business has grown quickly and already had to move offices multiple times in its locations due to the addition of staff. Enterprise Ireland has provided assistance to the company as it manages its growth.
'We've taken big leaps and strides in the past 12 months and grown rapidly. Enterprise Ireland has helped out in a number of ways. They have put us in touch with people, invested in us and let us use their offices,' Denton said.
The company has no plans to raise any more funding at present, with its goal in the near-term to expand its partnerships with institution-level investors.
'We don't want to become a household name, we want to be an industry-known name. If you're a government or family office and want to talk tokenisation, you come to us. We want to be that name in tokenisation,' Denton said.
'We are regulated in the UK and the UAE, and are in the application processes in Ireland. We'd like to look more at Europe, the US and Singapore as well.'
